The Punjab government is in a bind over a High Court order to cancel 7000 bus route permits and 2000 route extensions as taking such a huge number of buses off the road is set to cause inconvenience to the public before new permits are issued and buses start plying on those routes again. The state government has to submit an action taken report to the High Court regarding the cancellation of these permits. Acting on a public interest litigation filed by two Punjab residents who alleged that mafia and politicians with stakes in the transport business, in connivance with transport officials, were granting bus route permits and extensions in violation of norms laid down in Motor Vehicles Act 1988, Punjab and Haryana High Court in October last year had stayed extension and increase in route trips of buses as proposed by Punjab government. The court had sought reply from the state government and all the four Regional Transport Authorities of Jalandhar, Patiala, Ferozepur and Bathinda on the issue. A transport department official said that in view of the upcoming wheat procurement season, the examination season and rural connectivity, it was undesirable to cancel such a large number of route permits as it would lead to large-scale disruption of public transport. “We are proposing that first the new permits be issued on the said routes and then the old permits be cancelled. State’s Advocate General will take a final call on this and accordingly a reply may be filed in the court where government may seek time from the court to cancel the routes,” the official, who wished not to be named, told The Indian Express on Tuesday. In its first cabinet meeting, Captain Amarinder Singh’s government had also announced new transport policy and the transport department is working on grand footing to draft the policy. “In case government decides to do away with the route permits straightaway without buying time, the new route permits would have to be issued as per the laid down norms as pointed out by the court,” the official said. In an exercise spanning in all the four Regional Transport Authorities, State Transport department found out that about 7000 bus route permits were issued in violation of the norms and another 2000 bus routes were given extension after extension in violation of the rules, said the official. The irregularities in the route permits, as per the official, ranged from plying buses on routes where State Transport Undertaking buses were otherwise supposed to have a monopoly to “deviation” of original route permits. “Only one extension of 24 kilometres is allowed as per the norms, but there are cases where extension after extension were given on a particular route to connect with distant destinations,” the official said. “Also, there are permits which were issued against a category of bus service, which has no mention in the transport policy,” the official said.
